Case study 2 - Question Engineering

Oil & Gas Market Re-Entry

The Challenge

A national equipment rehire company sought to re-enter the oil and gas sector, a market it had previously exited. Leadership framed the challenge as 'How can we regain lost market share and re-establish credibility?' However, this framing assumed the problem was purely competitive positioning, not strategic alignment.

QE Approach

The QE process began by rejecting the surface question and investigating whether the issue was really a loss of credibility, or if the market structure had evolved making previous positioning irrelevant. Initial investigation revealed the UKCS oil and gas sector was undergoing structural transformation.

The Discovery

The market was mapped into its value chain: exploration → production → refining → storage → decommissioning. The firm's competencies in temporary power, pumps, containment, and site safety aligned most strongly with tank-farm operations — a sub-sector with active spend (£1 billion annually) and low innovation saturation.

Process Details

1. Interrogate

The QE process began by rejecting the surface question. Was the issue really a loss of credibility? Or had the market structure evolved, making previous positioning irrelevant? What empirical data could redefine the opportunity space? Initial investigation revealed significant market transformation: £2 billion spent annually on offshore decommissioning, £16 billion on well plug and abandonment, 14% of UKCS expenditure dedicated to decommissioning (projected to rise 19% by 2031), and £1 billion annual spend on tank-farm operations.

2. Deconstruct

The market was mapped into its value chain: exploration → production → refining → storage → decommissioning. Each link was cross-examined against the rehire company’s existing capabilities. Observation: The firm’s competencies in temporary power, pumps, containment, and site safety aligned most strongly with tank-farm operations — a sub-sector with active spend and low innovation saturation.

3. Reconstruct

The original question ‘How can we re-enter the market?’ evolved into: ‘Where in the oil and gas value chain do our existing capabilities create the highest strategic leverage?’ This reframing shifted the company’s perspective from market nostalgia to opportunity precision.

4. Design

Evidence guided a targeted market-entry strategy focused solely on tank-farm service optimization, not the entire sector. The result was a validated, data-anchored entry point representing a £1 billion addressable market, identified through questioning, not assumption.

Impact

QE revealed that the problem was not credibility loss but mis-definition of opportunity. By interrogating the brief, the firm avoided a costly broad-market campaign and the company positioned itself to capture a share of the £1bn addressable market in tank farm operations, proving that clarity multiplies impact.